A New Method Improving Iron Based Superconductor’s Performance

A research team in US has come out with a new method to enhance the performance of the iron based superconductor’s performance. They used a thin film fabrication technique called pulsed-laser deposition, which uses a high-power laser to vaporize materials that are then collected in layers on a substrate. This complex technique is a bit like carefully collecting the gas as it rises above a boiling pot, only with nearly atomic-level precision.

"A key breakthrough here is the discovery that adding layers of cesium-oxide in between the films and substrates dramatically increased the superconductor's critical current density, or maximum electricity load, as well as the critical temperature at which the material becomes superconducting," said Brookhaven Lab physicist Qiang Li, head of the Advanced Energy Materials Group and leader of this study. "That critical temperature threshold rose 30 percent over the same compound made without this layering process—stills a very cold -253 degrees Celsius, but it promises significant application potential."